By Fishing your way, Feb 14 2017 04:57PM

Whether you are new to fishing or an experienced angler, it is vital that you make sure your fish safety is of the highest level. Being a beginner is a totally acceptable reason for not catching fish or for not knowing fishing techniques, but there is simply no excuse for a lack in knowledge causing suffering to these amazing animals. So after that stern introduction, here is a simple guide to getting it right!

Fish Safety Step 1

Thoroughly read the rules of the lake that you are fishing. This will tell you what lb lines, hook sizes, fishing techniques and other general fishing tackle you are allowed to use. Keep to this!

Fish Safety Step 2

Before your first cast make sure the fish unhooking situation is set-up. DO NOT cast out and then put your landing net together. Your fishing situation MUST include the minimum of:

By Fishing your way, May 12 2015 08:52PM

Fishing your way are not putting this article together as something new. Zig-rig fishing has been around for a little while now, but the majority of anglers that I talk to haven't ever tried it. When asked why? It's usually a confidence thing... they're not comfortable with it. Zig rig fishing, at first glance, looks like a strange way to fish but I assure you that it is bloody deadly when done correctly.

I haven't really done that much zig rig fishing, so I decided to commit to only fishing with that technique the next time I went out... the results were outstanding. In a 5 hour session, I bagged 8 carp all in the 19lb - 24lb mark. A great session agnling. Here is all that I did...

I fired dog biscuits out using a 'spomb' in different areas of the lake until carp started feeding on the surface - that didn't take long at all. On this particular day, carp were feeding just off the point of an island that was on a gradual slope from 6 to 12 feet in depth. I set-up 2 zig rigs and set them both to 7 feet in depth. As I was using dog biscuits I wanted my hook bait to look similar. I used a 15mm pop-up boilie of similar colour that I chopped down to look like a dog biscuit. The diagram below shows the simple fishing tackle set-up used to fish the zig rig:

By Fishing your way, May 11 2014 09:48AM

Let me introduce you to the science part...

'Most animals are capable of acquiring, storing and using information about the landscapes they inhabit. Knowledge of the environment can potentially reduce uncertainty about the location and availability of resources, and even allow for the anticipation of danger'. Lake dwelling fish have no migratory path to follow and usually (except flooding) live out their life in one lake.

Breaking that down... Fish, and particularly a carp, function according to a memory-based movement pattern. Think about your own lake... Where are the carp usually seen in the morning and where are they usually seen in the evening? Has it ever struck you that it seems to be the same each day (except with severe weather changes) and even then you begin to notice where the fish go on these days?

Fish have Memory!

After a very short amount of time fish learn the landscape of their lake. They know where the deep water and shallow water is, where the sun strikes the lake in the morning, where it’s warmest when the wind blows, where there is a safe place to chill out to not get caught, which bushes drop food and attract the insects they like. They also learn that particular areas are dangerous, or particular foods are dangerous. Although fish might not figure this out immediately and some take a whole season, a fish has a basic memory is designed for survival.

By Fishing your way, Apr 9 2014 11:53PM

Here is the most successful rig and bait combination that we fish with during April and May on lakes. We have started using the same rig this year and once again we are catching carp where others are not. We wanted to share this carp catcher with visitors to our site.

This fishing tackle set-up is simple, but very effective and here’s why...

Firstly, from the picture you can see that the hook bait is sat over the fishing hook to help to conceal it. The fishing bait we have used is Mainline’s Hi-Visual fruit-tella pop-up. Is it the pink boilie? Is it the boilie size? Is it the boilie scent? Perhaps it’s all 3. But it works!

Please don’t think that we actually fish this over gravel because we don’t. At this time of year we find a silt patch to fish on so the braid isn’t bouncing up from the deck and spooking the fish. It will work on gravel but you do risk spooking fish due to hook length line and how it will lay.

By Fishing your way, Mar 24 2014 02:00PM

It is important to understand the habits and influences that affect the fish that you are fishing for. FIshing tackle science and other vital fishing knowledge are very important, but for one of our team members at ‘fishing your way’ being an environmental ecologist (BSc) leads to further questions; is something else affecting the movement patterns and location of these fish?

He writes…

All lakes in the UK can be broken down and viewed in 3 distinct layers; this breaking down into layers is known as ‘lake stratification’. Anglers, you need to know this stuff!

The 3 different layers of the lake each have different temperatures; this difference in water temperature is caused by a change in outside temperature which changes throughout the year.